The Industrial Internet of Things FEATURE NEWS

People Power Closes Series B-1 Funding from innogy and Origin for Smart Home Solutions

In a recent release, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) software company, People Power, has announced the conclusion of its Series B-1 financing, which included $2 million from innogy, a subsidiary of RWE and Germany’s leading energy company with more than 23 million customers, and $1.2 million from Origin Energy, Australia's largest energy retailer, in addition to other investments. This funding brings the company’s total investments to $14 million and fuels the expansion of People Power’s IoT deployments for service providers around the world.

People Power’s IoT Suite is designed to enable intelligent device connectivity for powerful and easily managed consumer IoT programs for energy retailers and digital service providers. The suite integrates AI using bots in order to understand real-time data streams from a user’s life and learn patterns to provide more intelligent outcomes.

“We’re enabling exciting new services for utility companies and service providers that deliver improved lifestyle experiences to their customers, and this additional funding will help us accelerate our efforts to keep up with global demand,” said Gene Wang, CEO and co-founder, People Power. “Energy providers can utilize our offerings to bring their customers solutions beyond typical energy services including home security and safety, improved energy management and more.”

innogy and Origin are partnering with People Power to curate pilot programs in Germany and Australia, leading to broader market trials of smart home services.

“Bot-enabled machine learning services are the next big step in the smart home market, and People Power is already there,” said Florian Kolb, Managing Director of innogy New Ventures, Palo Alto. “Combining People Power’s technology with innogy’s platform will allow us to accelerate user participation and evolve our energy services in Germany. Its IoT services enhance our own sustainable and innovative energy solutions by enabling us to better scale and manage programs. The intelligence provided by People Power’s technology opens new market and revenue possibilities.”

By bringing AI to IoT, People Power’s ready-made white-label solutions deliver recurring revenues from smart home services for leading companies like innogy and Origin.

“The rise of renewables is transforming energy markets around the world, however the biggest disruption has proven to be new technologies,” said Cameron Briggs, Origin’s Head of Future Energy. “To stay ahead of our competitors in Australia and provide valuable connected home services to our customers, we turn to partners like People Power. Utilizing People Power’s solutions will help us to drive customer adoption and deliver key IoT services, establishing us as a market leader and helping us go beyond the basic utility model.”